Minnesota spiritual leader on AI's impact on religion

The line between the worlds of artificial intelligence and faith is continuing to blur.

In September, the New York Times reported leaders from Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company behind Claude, held closed door meetings with religious scholars. The same group has also stood alongside Pope Leo, forming a historic conversation centered around AI ethics and machine consciousness.

But as AI continues to become more human-like, where is the line? Could it one day gain consciousness or a soul? Or in the meantime, could it become a replacement for pastors, priests or other spiritual leaders?

Professor Noreen Herzfeld has spent her entire career leading up to this moment. She has spent decades researching the connection between machine intelligence and spirituality, most recently at St. John's School of Theology and Seminary.

"Well, things have changed vastly (recently)," Herzfeld said. "We look at AI and how it has the potential to infiltrate so many aspects of our lives. And so it raises many of the same questions about who are we?"

Herzfeld says Anthropic leaders meeting with faith leaders raises a number of questions.

"They are concerned about morality. About maybe finding a way to make this being more moral and asking themselves, what is it that we are creating? I don't think they think they're creating a God, but I do think they are creating, in a sense, a partner or an equal to humanity," Herzfeld said.

BIGGER THAN BELIEF

Professor Herzfeld dives head on into this issue on this week's episode of Bigger Than Belief, a weekly podcast exploring faith, belief, and religion – all through the stories of believers.

You can find the entire conversation by searching "Bigger Than Belief" wherever you listen.